"Starvation mode," metabolic slowing, and getting out of an unhealthy habit: a question

samib901
samib901 Posts: 1 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
When I started my diet, I was following the app fairly closely. Some days I was a bit over, some days a bit under, but that's to be expected. Then at the beginning of last month or so I had one day where I went 300 or so calories under and because I'm a competative person (especially with myself) my calorie deficits started to increase until I was only consuming about 800-900 calories a day. I've realized this is extremely unhealthy and I'm trying to gradually re-increase my caloric intake, but I'm worried about my metabolism. I know that extreme "starvation mode" is a myth, but from what I read, the body's metabolism does slow down when calories are lower than healthy. The entire affair has only lasted about three weeks, but I just want to know if this will have a significant effect on my metabolism. I'm trying to add about 100 calories back per day per week to slowly get back to a healthy intake; is that the right way to go about it? (Context, if necessary: I am a 5'3 female weighing 137 lbs as of now)

Replies

  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 15,723 Member
    edited March 2018
    You're at a BMI 24, so within the normal weight range. To minimize effects you should be going with small deficits... if any depending on goals.

    In terms of hormonal reset I believe, and maybe @anubis609 can confirm, that you might as well go straight to maintenance calories. In fact... why don't you have a quick check on the refeeds and diet break thread.

    All you would need to know is pretty much in the first page/first few pages of the thread. But a high carb refeed or two will hopefull take care of the majority of damage that may have occurred.
  • AliceDark
    AliceDark Posts: 3,886 Member
    You didn’t do any damage in that time frame, so don’t worry about that or beat yourself up over it. Just move forward and concentrate on practicing healthy habits from now on.

    You may see a jump of a pound or two (or three) on the scale as you increase your calorie intake. Don’t freak out. This isn’t fat gain. If you see a bump, it’s water retention, refilling your glycogen stores, the extra weight of food in your system, things like that. It’s unavoidable, and it’s totally normal. Be patient and let your body adjust.

    FWIW, I take regular diet breaks where I eat at maintenance for 4-7 days. I started one yesterday and today I’m up 2.5 pounds. Most of that will be gone tomorrow or the day after.
  • anubis609
    anubis609 Posts: 3,966 Member
    You actually supported the idea that starvation mode is indeed a myth by acknowledging that metabolism gets reduced in an energy deficit. Metabolism is supposed to down regulate in an energy deficit. If it didn't we would surely die.

    Unless you have some sort of metabolic problem or are no longer producing certain hormones, it's actually quite difficult to destroy your metabolism. I will agree that it may not be psychologically healthy to chronically eat at such a low calorie intake, but your metabolism can and will bounce back if you take a diet break.

    The definition of a diet break is to be at maintenance ASAP, meaning you're no longer in any kind of deficit, so reverse dieting back to maintenance means you are prolonging the dieting period until you achieved that amount.

    So let's assume your maintenance is ~1800kcal. If you are eating 900kcal now, and you add 100kcal/week, that means you would be extending the diet by 9 weeks until you achieve 1800kcal. That's over 2 months of hormonal down regulation still occurring until you finally hit 1800kcal, and you would need to be at that maintenance for up to a week or two just to get hormones to finally trend back up.

    Metabolically, it's better to jump straight into maintenance, but if that's too psychologically triggering for a binge, then reduce the time it takes for you to achieve maintenance, like increasing calories by 300 each day for 3 days, then keeping maintenance from that point on.

    *Side note, while it is not starvation mode - hormonal regulation can become damaged if eating at a severe deficit for a long time and will take MUCH LONGER to fix (but it can be fixed) the longer it goes on. Another reason why it's better to get to maintenance sooner rather than later.

    After the diet break, if you need to diet again, choose a more reasonable deficit, and incorporate diet breaks every so often because it's already been discussed that metabolism starts slowing down in any deficit. The harder the cut, the harder you feel metabolism react to the cut.
This discussion has been closed.

Categories